April 8, 2016 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — 29

Asia Week New York Rings Up $130 Million In Total Sales

Guests at the Asia Week New York reception co-hosted by
the Asian department of the Metropolitan Museum of Artand Asia Week New York. —Annie Watt photo
NEW YORK CITY — Asia
Week New York —- the ten-day
Asian art extravaganza thatconcludedon
March19
achieved $130 million in totalsales.
From the minute the 45 international galleries of Asia Week
New York opened their doors onMarch 10, a whirlwind of activities swept the city. The annualevent was celebrated with amagnificent reception co-hosted with the Asian departmentof the Metropolitan Museum ofArt on March 14 when ThomasP. Campbell, the director of theMet, Mike Hearn, chair of theAsian art department, andLark Mason, chairman of Asia
Week New York, welcomed
more than 650 collectors, curators and Asian art specialists.
The event ignited excitementthat burned for the entire
week, and the Asian art world
buzzed with exhibitions andauctions that were thronged
with international buyers frommainland
China,Taiwan,India, Japan, Korea, Europe
and the United States.
“Despite concerns of the Chinese economy affecting Asia
Week New York, the galleries
saw steady traffic throughout
the week, and the four major
auction houses, including Bonhams, Christie’s, Doyle andSotheby’s, saw sales that wererobust,” said Mason.
Mason reported that museum
curators from all corners of theUnited States and the globe
flooded Asia Week New York,
including the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, The Art
Institute of Chicago, SaintLouis Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum ofFine Arts, Boston, Brooklyn
Museum, The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Los AngelesCounty
Museumof Art,Newark Museum, Phoenix Art
Museum, San Antonio ArtMuseum, Herbert F. Johnson
Museum at Cornell University,Harvard University Art Museums and Indianapolis ArtMuseum.
Also included were Yale University Art
Gallery, The
Phillips Collection, Mead Art
Museum at Amherst College,
the Museum of the City of New
York, Nelson-Atkins Museum,
Philadelphia Museum, Detroit
Institute of Art, Kimbell Art
Museum, Worcester Art Museum, University of Michigan
Museum, Cleveland Museum,
Crow Collection in Dallas, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,
Princeton Art Museum, Jordan
Schnitzer Art Museum, Norton
Museum of Art, Asia SocietyMuseum, Ackland Art Museum, China Institute, Toledo
Museum, The Korea Society
Gallery, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smart Museum andfrom abroad the British Museum of Art, Royal Ontario Museum and the Asian Civilisations
Museum in Singapore.
Accolades came in from justabout every quarter, as evidenced by the comments by theparticipating galleries. Chinese
specialist Eric Zetterquist of
his eponymous Zetterquist Galleries in New York commented,“We have had a very active Asia
Week this year, with nonstop
traffic throughout the ten days.
I am particularly delighted tofind that pessimism about theimpact of the Chinese economy
is completely unwarranted. We
saw many Chinese collectors
and dealers, who were activebuyers. As with most years, I
enjoyed visits with museum
curators from all over the country, many of whom broughtinterested patrons. Sales wererobust with still more to come,and several new clients areamong the purchasers.”“Asia Week New York 2016
was another strong year at

Bakula, Tibet, circa Eighteenth Century, 37
by 24 inches. Courtesy of Kapoor Galleries.
Kapoor Galleries, with manymuseum curators, collectors
and enthusiasts showing up
throughout the ten-day event,”
said Suneet Kapoor. “A sale ofnote was a very fine thangka of
Arhat Bakula, a very large andpowerful work, with beautiful
detail on his robe and the various elements throughout, dating back to the EighteenthCentury.”“We are delighted to reporthigh attendance at our exhibition,” said James Lally of J.J.
Lally & Co., another Chinese
specialist, who reported that 80
percent of his exhibition was
sold before the end of Asia

Joan Mirviss at her gallery during the weekof open house exhibitions.
—W.A. Demers photoWeek. “The subject of our exhibition this year was very esoteric — ancient Chinese jade —but the response was verystrong and we had many serious inquiries from Americancollectors and museums and we
received many US collectors
and curators, as well as visitorsfrom Asia and around theworld.”“Ninety-five percent of our
exhibited works sold before
Asia Week’s end and nearly amonth before the show closed,”

said Joan Mirviss of her eponymous New York gallery Joan B.
Mirviss Ltd. “I couldn’t be more
pleased with the fervent reception of ‘A Palette for Genius:
Japanese Water Jars for theTea Ceremony.’ This was thefirst exhibition purely dedicatedtoshowcasing
themizusashi, or water jar, even inJapan, and it was very gratifying to see how everyone
responded to it.”For additional information,www.asiaweeknewyork.com.

A neolithic jade openwork hooked cloud-form pendant,
Hongshan Culture, circa 3500–2000 BCE, length 4¾ inches.
Courtesy J.J. Lally & Co.

From left: Lark Mason, chairman of Asia Week New York,Thomas P. Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum,and Mike Hearn, chair of the Asian art department.
—Annie Watt photoRichard Waldman of the Art of Japan, Issaquah, Wash.,compares with a client two first state prints by Hiroshige
at a trunk show at the Mark Hotel.
—W.A. Demers photo